Circle K, Burger King Class Actions Allege ADA Violations

Two ADA class action lawsuits brought by the same plaintiff challenge the wheelchair accessibility at certain Circle K and Burger King locations.

Plaintiff Josie Badger says she relies on a wheelchair to get around, due to a disability not specifically named in her ADA class action lawsuits.

Badger alleges the design and construction at these businesses’ parking lots violate Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

At Circle K, Badger says she could not get “full and equal access” to the business as a result of its inaccessible parking lots and paths of travel.

She says that at two different Circle K stores in Pennsylvania, she experienced “unnecessary difficulty and risk” due to what she describes as “excessive slopes in purportedly accessible parking spaces and access aisles.”

Badger believes that her experience at these two stores is a sign that Circle K’s centralized design, construction and maintenance practices have systematically violated the ADA by failing to produce facilities that are readily accessible and usable.

She claims an investigation revealed other alleged violations at 30 specific Circle K locations.

Badger raises similar claims in her separate ADA class action lawsuit against Burger King. An investigation conducted on her behalf revealed alleged ADA violations at six specific Burger King locations in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington.

At each of these locations, investigators found ramps with slopes exceeding 2.1 percent, with some sections as steep as 10 percent, she says.

In addition, parking spaces that were purportedly accessible were not marked with proper signage, she claims.

According to the class action lawsuits, the ADA was enacted to “provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities.”

Title III of the ADA generally requires places of public accommodation to give persons with disabilities the opportunity to fully and equally participate in those accommodations.

Both the ADA and its implementing regulations identify particular acts that fall within the Act’s definition of discrimination – acts like failure to remove architectural barriers, failure to design new buildings for ready access by individuals with disabilities, making alterations to existing facilities that fail to provide such ready access, and failure to maintain features meant to provide such access.

Earlier this summer, Badger filed two similar ADA class action lawsuits against Pilot Travel Centers and 7-Eleven. Those claims raised similar allegations of inadequate wheelchair accessibility in the defendants’ parking facilities.

In each of her current ADA class action lawsuits, Badger seeks to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of all wheelchair users who have attempted or will attempt to use the parking facilities owned or controlled by the defendants.

She seeks injunctions that would require Circle K and Burger King to bring its existing physical facilities into ADA compliance, to change their corporate policies in a way that prevents any future ADA violations, and to allow Badger to monitor the defendants’ facilities to ensure compliance with the Court’s order.

She also seeks reimbursement of her attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation.

Badger is represented by attorneys Benjamin J. Sweet, R. Bruce Carlson, and Stephanie K. Goldin of Carlson Lynch Sweet Kilpela & Carpenter LLP.

The Circle K ADA Class Action Lawsuit is Josie Badger v. Circle K Stores Inc., Case No. 2:16-cv-01185, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

The Burger King ADA Class Action Lawsuit is Josie Badger v. Burger King Corp., Case No. 2:16-cv-01183, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.